Overland Loses Ruling in Library Patent Case Against BDT

March 26 (Bloomberg) -- Overland Storage Inc., a maker of
data-protection systems, lost a patent-infringement ruling
against BDT-Solutions GmbH over storage systems that archive a
company’s electronic records.

BDT didn’t violate Overland’s patent rights, U.S.
International Trade Commission Judge Charles Bullock said in a
notice posted on the Washington agency’s website.

The case targets closely held BDT’s FlexStor II product
line of automated tape libraries, which it makes overseas and
then lets companies sell in the U.S. under their own brand
names. Automated libraries backup or archive data on tape drives
in a central location and then retrieve that data from networked
computers, often using robotic arms.

The Overland patents, covering technology it uses for its
NEO systems for small- and medium-sized companies, are for the
apparatus and methods of storing or retrieving the data. The Neo
series accounted for about 31 percent of the company’s $59.6
million in revenue in fiscal 2012, the company said in its
annual report.

Bullock in June said neither of the two patents had been
infringed, and one aspect of one of the patents was invalid. The
six-member commission in January ordered the judge to review
those findings, particularly as it pertained to the validity
issue on one of the patents and infringement of the other, which
relates to a mail slot in the devices.

San Diego, California-based Overland named International
Business Machines Corp. and Dell Inc. in the original complaint;
it later settled with those companies. Overland also has filed
patent-infringement lawsuits against other competitors,
including Quantum Corp. and Qualstar Corp. Those cases are
pending in federal court in San Diego.

The case is In the Matter of Automated Media Library
Devices, 337-746, U.S. International Trade Commission
(Washington).